Massachusetts: Farm Animals Deserve More

Update:

August 2014—Thank you for your interest in stopping some of the most extreme confinement of farm animals! The Massachusetts’s legislature adjourned and unfortunately did not pass this legislation. The fight is not over, so please stayed tuned!

Dear Humanitarian in Massachusetts,

Imagine spending nearly your entire life confined in quarters so restrictive that you could not turn around or extend your limbs. This, unfortunately, is the fate of the vast majority of pregnant pigs, veal calves, and egg-laying hens in this country. They are treated not as living, sentient beings, but as units of production.

Farm animals deserve better treatment. They should not be stripped of any ability to exhibit their most basic natural movements. There is a bill in the Massachusetts legislature that could help end this most extreme confinement. The bill, H.1456/S.741, would make it illegal to confine pregnant pigs, and veal calves in a manner that stops them from lying down, standing up, turning around, or extending their limbs. We need your help to ensure this law passes.

The bill recently passed out of committee but lawmakers took out a provision that would have helped stop the most extreme confinement of egg-laying hens. We need your help to try to get this provision back into the bill.

What You Can DoPlease call or write your state senator and representative today and urge them to vote YES on H.1456/S.741 and to put the egg-laying hen provision back into the bill. To identify your state legislators and their contact information, click here (once you click on the link, enter your address and click "Go"). You can say: "I am a constituent, and I'm calling to ask you to support H.1456 and similar bill, S.741, because pigs, and calves, should be permitted to turn around and extend their limbs. Egg-laying hens deserve these protections as well, so please include them in the bill too."

Be sure to share our "Dear Humanitarian" eAlert with family, friends and co-workers, and encourage them to contact their legislators as well. As always, thank you very much for your dedication to protecting animals!

Sincerely,

Dena Jones
Farm Animal Program Manager

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